So the cycle kicked on and I've been reading a steady 20 ppm Nitrate 0 ppm amonia/nitrite. Whew.

Plants are growing nicely. The wisteria started reaching out of the tank so I topped them to fill out the back a bit more. May trim all of their broad "emerged" leaves off. The new growth was so much nicer to look at, and I'd like it to be more uniform. Anyone else for this?

The only plant I'm not happy with is the anubias, once the plants grow in I think the little nubi won't really fit. Looking for ideas on something bushy / red/purple.

Planted tank 2 weeks old:

Currently stocked with 1x Nerite 1x Apple 1x Betta and a hand full of cherry shrimp:

The main complaints of the Flora is that it's packaged as an all included plant tank, but most of the stock equipment is no good. The filter is ugly, the CO2 system works but is not a long term solution (little paintball canisters) and the light is only 13W. That being said, the tank itself is beautiful - but I don't think you could grow more than low/low-mid light plants with it stock.

Working on a slow re-scape - wasn't digging how quickly the wisteria overgrew the tank. The large leaves caused too many shading issues for a tank of this size. I've moved to ludwigias and they have started to grow in.

Attached is a shot just before the first trim:

Soon I'll remove all of the wisteria - right now it's just there to stave off the algae hordes .

I concur. I had wisteria and it grew like a weed (just like a aquatic weed should grow). Unfortunately, in my low light setup, the Wisteria quickly grew cumbersome with roots sprouting from all levels of the stem and literally creating a mat of roots and completely shadowing all the growth below it.

It's my conclusion that Wisteria isn't appropriate for small tanks (I'd say even for 20G tall tanks). Granted, it looks great when compact and fresh (bright green with lush growth), it quickly becomes unsavory.

I prefer plants that keep their growth stable (ferms) and more manageable - especially in small tanks. I hate to continuously tear down scapes. I would suggest placing a healthy amount of Needle-leaf Java Fern where the Wisteria is now.

I do recommend getting a fair, established amount rather than a few nodes to grow out since it's a relatively slow grower.

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